There are many industrial processes and processing steps, particularly in machining and testing, that require the use a single tool or plurality of tools to operate either passively; or, as dynamically and active tool elements upon a workpiece. As an example of a passive tool application, consider a testing step subsequent to the cast fabrication of that portion of an internal combustion engine or engine block of a four-cycle reciprocating gasoline (petro) fuelled engine, which housing defines a plurality of cylindrical bores in which a combustion piston reciprocatingly travels during engine operation; and, as well, coolant chambers networking as the surrounding cooling water jacket for the passage of a coolant to keep the engine block cool.
When an engine block is cast in a casting furnace, either in steel, aluminum, or another metal or alloys thereof, after sand is removed from the casting and the outside surfaces, which will act as the bearing or sealing surfaces are machine ground smooth, it has been customary to test the engine block to see whether sand holes exist between cylinder bores, or between any one cylinder and the water jacket; the plurality of interconnected apertures, which of course are not supposed to communicate with any one of the cylinder bores. Typically, the "base" engine block is placed on a cradle and moved into a hydraulic press area which carries two or more plates, each with a plurality of passive seal holding tools, whose active surface is a resilient elastomer, acting as an elastomeric seal on each tool. The elastomeric seals are moved, by the hydraulic press, so as to overcover all the exposed apertures of the water jacket or the coolant chambers of the engine block; save and except for one inflow port to the water jacket system; or, alternatively save and except the outflow port thereof. Syr, under pressure, is injected into the engine block water jacket through one of these flow ports and elevated to a given pressure and sustained there for a period of time, normally 10 to 15 seconds and the pressure is monitored. If the pressure does not remain static, then there are pin holes in the water jacket structure allowing the bleeding of air out from the water jacket. The water jacket does not have integrity, and the engine block is sent back to the casting operation for re-melting and re-casting.
Similarly, each of the plurality of piston cylinder chambers is checked in subsequent testing steps.
Heretofore, when there is "leakage" at each or any one of the testing steps, it is really not known, with any true accuracy, whether the "leak" is as a result of pinholes through the casting walls or as a result of air leakage around the elastomeric membrane or seal when it is engaged, by the hydraulic press or ram, to overcover the orifices.
The reason for this is the simple tediousness of seal removal from the testing hydraulic press. The worker must contort his body to place himself beneath the plate holding the plurality of tool carrying seals in order to pry these seals out with a screwdriver. When one considers that in some instances, up to 55 or more elastomeric seals must be popped or pried out of the tool seal holder plate, the possibility of back injury for the worker is rather high. Further, the down time for the hydraulic press can be up to 18 to 30 hours to remove and replace all the seals in the machine. There are other applications where a tool holder, if easily removable, would have great application; namely, in polishing and grinding applications; in machine drilling operations; in tapping operations where a thread is tapped into an aperture.
It is therefore a general object of the invention to eliminate the stress of worker in replacing the tool holder element whether holding seals or drills or other tools, and to reduce substantially the down time in taking the tool holding elements out and replacing them with new tool holding elements which carry replacement tools whereby the required operation may be performed again with little or no down time for a press or other machine carrying the plurality of tool holding elements.
The invention therefore contemplates a two-part tool holding fixture wherein a first part is a removable tool holding cartridge that is simplistically removably secured into a mating relationship with another or second part of the fixture. One part of the fixture preferably is a male part, the other part a female part.
When the tool holding cartridge is the male part, the cartridge at one end has a tool holding portion into which the tool is affixed. The cartridge is then slid and turned to fit in, to lock, and to secure itself within the second or cartridge carrying part.